


The Girl Who Called Herself Terezi Pyrope

by Josiefeathergirl



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Humanstuck, Mental Institutions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-23
Updated: 2012-12-27
Packaged: 2017-11-19 07:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/570746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Josiefeathergirl/pseuds/Josiefeathergirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Your name is Carlson Vantas and you got sucked into an internship in the psychiartric hospital. Insane people tend to creep you out, espeically the girl who calls herself Terezi. She's nineteen and hasn't been given the time of day since her family stuck her in here at age ten. You can't help think she's not that bad. Even if she does have weird hallucinations.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Karkat- Carlson Vantas  
> Terezi- Treasa Pyrope
> 
> Hope you guys enjoy! Comments appreciated!   
> ~Josie

"Good morning Karkat!" An all too familiar voice cackles.

You let out a frustrated sigh, "It's Carlson and no morning is good, thank very much for reminding me."

"Aww, you just need some cheering up!" She pats her bed singling for you to sit down, but you just shoot a glare in her direction, not that she can see it.

"What do you think my job is? Just sitting around all day entertaining you?" You finish sorting out her pills and bring them over to her with a glass of water.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt now would it?" She laughs as she takes the pills from you and ingests them with a big gulp of water.

"Yes, it would. I would like to keep my sanity during this fucking internship," You mumble.

She hands you back the glass and tilts her head to the side, "If you hate it here so much why intern here? Couldn't you get a job at an actual doctor's office or something?"

"Unfortunately I had absolutely zero say in where I had to fucking work for a year of my own god damn life," You tell her as you put the pill bottles away.

You have to admit you're glad she's not a complete nut case. She can at least hold a normal conversation, but sometimes she starts talking about her fucked up dreams or allusions or whatever and they really creep you out. She knows things you wouldn't think she would know, like your name.

Of course she calls you karcat all the time, but the moment she first saw you she smiled and called you Karcat Vantas. You hadn't even registered yet. Nobody knew your last name, but her. It scared the shit out you, then you found out she was your main patient and it almost made you drop out. You're not easily frightened, but crazy people claiming they know things about you, strikes up some unknown fear inside you.

Then you got to know her and she's not too bad when she's on her medication. She calls herself Terezi, but you stick to Teresa. At she was upset that you didn't play along with her, but after a while she got used to it. You have yet to get her to call you Carlson though.

You walk over and sit on her bed. She loves it when you do that. It's obvious she likes you. It's probably from the fact that you're the only one who gives her the time of day. The more you talk to her, the more you realize she's just a girl too. The same age as you actually. She's nineteen and has never had a family or anyone who tells her about the outside world. You feel kind of bad for her. You figure you can spare five minutes to talk to her.

She comes over and wraps her arms around you. She does that some times, but it creeps you out a little, "Well whether you like it or not, I'm glad you're here."

"Umm thanks, I guess," You say while unwrapping her arms.

"You don't like hugs?" She asks.

"Not really."

"Why?"

"I just don't."

"I like hugs," She bats her eyelashes. That's all they're good for, batting when she wants to look cute. You don't fall for it though.

"That's great."

She crosses her arms and pouts, "You're no fun."

"It's not my job to be fun."

She eyes you, "Do you ever do anything not school or work related?"

"Nope."

"That's no fun!" She exclaims.

"Well, life isn't supposed to be fun!" You yell and she flinches. You always forget you can't yell at the patients.

"Why?" She asks softly.

"It's just not. You go to school until you're eighteen, then if you want a good job, you go to college. After collage, you get a job and work until you retire, then you go to an old folk's home until you die. That's life. Trust me; you're not missing out on much."

She grabs her little stuffed dragon and hugs it to her chest, "What about love?"

"What about it?" You grumble.

"Don't people fall in love, get married, have kids, and live their whole life together?"

"Only idiots."

Her face drops and she examines you as if she could see, "So, you're never going to fall in love?"

"I believe that's my own business."

"Ya, ya, ya, "She mumbles as she lies back against her pillow, "But everyone has to fall in love. It's just a human thing,"

"And let me guess, you're not going to fall in love?" You ask completely dreading where this conversation is going.

"No, I already have!" she smiles proudly.

Hmm, not the answer you were expecting, but okay you guess you'll play in her fantasies for a bit, "But I thought you weren't human." You shoot back.

"Trolls can fall in love," She pouts, "It's just a little different than what humans call love."

"Hmm, really? Please continue on, this subject fucking fascinates me."

She punches you on the arm playfully, "I know you don't believe me, nobody does, but it's true!"

"Ya, and that explains why I can't see these horns you say you have," You pat her clearly hornless head.

"They're there, you just can't see them!" She insists.

"I'm not the blind one here. Seriously, you've never even seen yourself in a mirror," You point out.

"I have too!" She protests, "I wasn't always blind."

"Really?" Honestly you have no clue how she went blind, you always assumed it was a birth defect.

"Ya!" She smiles at the fact you believe something she says, "I can even draw and write! I didn't go blind until I was about ten."

That would explain why she is quite coordinated. She can navigate her room with ease. She has a cane, but you have never seen her use it. When she does leave her room on occasion, she never has her cane, nor does she run into things, it's quite amazing actually.

"Prove it."

"What?" she looks baffled.

You get up, grab your pen and spare piece of paper, and hand it to her. "You said you could draw, so show me."

She smirks, "Okay!"

You sit down again as she takes the paper and starts drawing away. You watch her amused as she stares determinedly at the paper as if she could see. It must be a habit that she used to have when she could see. You find yourself wondering what happened to her to cause her to go blind, but you have an unnerving feeling that you don't want to know. Curiosity slowly starts getting the better of you and you are about to open your big mouth when she pops her head up smiling triumphantly. She hands you the scribbles for you to examine.

It sort of looks like two different objects, you can't really tell what they are though. It's been a while since she has drawn, you can figure that. She probably wasn't any good when she could see anyway. After a few moments of trying to guess what it is, you give up. "What am I looking at exactly?"

She crosses her arms and glares. "It's us!" she says defensively.

You take another look at the drawing. Okay, you guess you can tell it's a person if you look hard enough. Yes, ones a female with long hair and the other is a male with short hair. You notice how each person has lines coming out of their heads. Is it supposed to be some sort of hair or... horns? She gave you fucking horns. It also upsets you that the male is shorter than the female. How the hell does she know how tall you are? You look over at her smiling face. She seems so proud of herself. It's kind of cute... In a pathetic child type of way of course.  
"How do you know how tall I am compared to you? I've never even described myself to you. How the hell do you even know if I have short hair? You know boys could have long hair. And just because I tend to get angry at you, doesn't mean I'm always scowling."

She giggles. "Of course I've seen what you look like! And yes, even though you don't know it you always look like your scowling."

"Like hell you've seen me. Where you like my fucking stalker or something before you were blinded? Okay, but people change. I'm sure I look nothing like ten year old me."

"No, silly!" she continues her obnoxious giggling; "I've seen you in my dreams!"

"Fucking sure. Believe whatever you want nutcase, but you have no clue what I look like."

"Well, your about five foot,"

"What!"

She ignores your objection and continues, "Messy black hair!" She reaches out to touch it, but you swat her away. "The most beautiful eyes! Unusual reddish- brown. Cute, little, round, nose. Pouty lips that seem to always frown!" she makes a pouty face to mock you, "Broad, but skinny shoulders. Small, twiggy arms," she giggles, "Small in general," you growl at her, but she continues, "Bad posture, you always slouch! Oh, and chewed up nails. That's such a bad habit. When you're not at work you tend to wear black, baggy, clothing and-"

You slap a hand over her mouth before she can continue. "Okay now you're fucking creeping me out." you state.

She smiles as you take your hand away from her mouth. You swear she enjoys making you uncomfortable.

"I know you asked one of the nurses or someone like that about me," you state, not falling for her tricks, "It's creepy that you would do that."

Her small smile turns into her famous shit eating grin. "How would the nurses know what you look like on your time off?"

"Fuck you, you're just being creepy now."

"You know I'm right." she taunts.  
You can't think of a damn come back so you just stand up. "I don't have to take this," you try to sound less creped out than you really are.

"Aww, is Karkles scared?"

"Fuck no, I just want to get out of here before you give me another god damn name," you shoot back as you start to gather your supplies.

She crosses her arms and pouts. "It's not my fault no one believes me!"

"No, it's your pills fault. I wonder what exactly they do."

"Hey!" you hear her shout as you close the door behind you.


	2. Your name is Carlson Vantas

Your name is Carlson Vantas and you have been interning at Maple Wood psychiatric hospital for three months. A fourth of the ways through it and you have learned to expect some thing new everyday. Honestly you never wanted to work in a mental hospital and you probably never will, but for some reason your school inter program stuck you here. You would quit if you could, but getting accepted into medical school isn't some thing everyone has a chance at. You got that chance and you promised yourself you would seize it. Even if it does mean putting up with Teresa Pyrope every day.

You take a deep breath as you walk into the hospital for yet another day for work. Your day starts every morning at four o'clock. You not really a morning person and it tends to take you over an hour to get up each morning. This particular morning you have stumbled into work at six o'clock, just on time. You as the intern got the wonderful duty of doing morning and night rounds. Meaning you work from six to nine, go to school, come back at eight and work till eleven, only to go home a pond do homework. You have been counting down the days till this is all over since day one.

You pick up your clipboard and papers and head off to do your rounds. The first few patients are much like you, not morning people. You don't talk, just wake them up and give them their morning pills and head off. Then there's the room you always hesitate to enter, Teresa Pyrope. The moment you twist the handle and open the creeping door, her head snaps from silently staring out the window to greeting you with a bright smile.

She greets you with that weird name and starts talking away as if she's been up for hours. No one should be this joyful this early in the morning. You hand her the pills and there is a much needed moment of silence as she swallows them. She hands the cup back to you and starts talking again. You don't listen most the time and she knows it, but you're probably the only one who doesn't tell her to shut up right away.

You sit down on her bed and can't resist the urge to lay back. You had an essay to write the previous night leaving with absolutely no time to sleep. You gave yourself the luxury of a half hour shower this morning before going to get coffee, then strait to work. You don't know how you're going to stay awake in your classes though. You feel you head hit the soft mattress and you let your eyes flutter close for just a minute.

You're so out of it; it takes you a moment to realize the obnoxious stream of words that constantly flows out of her mouth has come to an abrupt stop. You then feel a finger poking at your cheek. You groan, but don't have the energy to swat her finger away.

"Are you okay?" she giggles after you make no effort to stop her poking.

"Fucking tired," is all you can mumble.

"Rock a bye Karkat, in the tree top, when the wind blows-"

"Fuck you," you mumble as you finally get the energy to swat her away and her singing is interrupted by her giggling. "God you're annoying."

"If I'm annoying, then get off my bed," she challenges.

"Nope."

"Fine," she giggles, "Then I'll tell you all about my dreams!"

You groan knowing she'll go through with that threat.

"Hmm? What was that? I think that sounded like a 'yes Terezi tell me all about your dreams!' Sure Karkat! I would love to tell you about my dreams last night!"

You groan again, but she just giggles and continues on, "Well lucky for you, you were there with whole bunch friends! We were playing the game as usual and you were commanding every body to do ridiculous thing like stay awake, no matter how tired we were! It was unfair because you had just woken up from a nice long nap and I was actually starting to get a little sleepy, but nope! No sleeping! I bet you had a bad dream or something." she pauses accusingly and you grunt.

"I would rather have a bad dream than go days without sleep."

"Didn't seem like it to me," she mumbles, "Anyway, while you were off telling everybody not to sleep for some unexplained reason, I went back to trolling the humans."

"Wait. There are humans in your little world?" you stop her to ask.

"Yep!"

"Huh. So wait, am I a human or a...?"

"Oh, you, me, and all our friends are Trolls!" she explains excitedly. "We look a lot like humans, but we have grey skin, sharp claws, fangs, and of course, horns!"

You nod, "So I've heard." This isn't the first time she has rambled about her dreams, but it is probably the first time you've actually listened. It's not as creepy as you thought. It's just like an elaborate fan fiction of some sort. If she's been in here for years it would be natural to make up some fake reality to live in, right?

"Do you ever dream?"

"Huh?" The question knocks you off guard. Why does she want to know if you dream? Your dreams are so run of the mill boring that you don't even bother to remember them after waking.

"Do you ever have dreams?" She repeats.

"Well ya, but I don't remember a damn thing about them after waking up."

"Hmm, you should try harder to remember." She pokes your head again for good measure.

"I'd rather not." You finally open your eyes and swat her away again.

"But dreams are so much fun!"

"What ever you say," you mumble as you sit up.

"You can learn so much about yourself by your dreams! It's really cool!" she starts to ramble again as you get off the bed. It's not until you have all your supplies gathered and are ready to walk out of her room when she stops talking. "Wait! You're leaving all ready?!"

"Yes. I have this thing called work."

"Just a little bit longer?" She pleads.

"No."

"Please! It's so boring being alone!"

"Just do what you normally do when I'm not here. Some how you have managed to survive this long, I'm sure you can go another fourteen hours without my presence."

"Smart ass."

"What ever." You walk out as she keeps pouting on her bed.

After a long day of no sleep you make it back to the hospital only to snap the head off of every person who crosses your path. Much like the mornings everyone is tired and let's you pass without trying to strike up a conversation, everybody but Teresa.

"How was your day?"

"Great."

"That didn't sound sincere."

"Leave me the fuck alone."

"Somebody's in a grumpy mood."

You stop what you're doing and glare at her, "Just shut the fuck up, and let me do my job. All you do all day is just spout nonsense that nobody cares about. You don't even want to get me started on why I am not in the mood for your constant bullshit right now. Okay? Be a good patient and just sit there like you're supposed to, god damn it!"

She flinches at your loud growl and stops talking. You're too tired to feel bad, but it just seems odd for the room to be quiet. Looking back over you see she has turn head away from you and is staring out the window. She can't even see out it. Why does she always do that? You take a deep breath telling yourself not to open your mouth again and walk out the door, only to find Kanaya leaning against the wall of the dimly lit hall waiting for you.

"She seemed unusually quite tonight." your fellow intern starts.

"I know you heard me." you state walking past her.

"To be honest, I think the whole hallway heard you," she smirks and starts to follow you down the hallway to the staff room.

"And yet you talk to me. Want your head bitten off too?"

"It's not the smartest idea to yell at the patients."

"You don't think I fucking know that?" you snap.

"I am just simply reminding you." she keeps her tone mellow in an attempt to calm you down.

"Ya, whatever, just let me go home and sleep."

"I have a feeling your lack of sleep isn't the only thing bothering you."

You let out a frustrated sigh as you pull your coat on to your shoulders. You've known Kanaya for years. She's the one who encouraged you to go into the medical field with her. She was always ambitious to go into the medical department. Her real goal is working in the maturity ward, but she got stuck here with you instead. She doesn't seem to mind it as much as you do though. She really is ambitious to reach her goal and won't let anything get in her way.

Your dad always liked her because of that. He never got why you didn't ask her out in high school. He kept pestering you about it until eventually you had to crush his hopes of her ever being his daughter-in-law by telling him she already had a girlfriend. Even so you don't think you could ever date Kanaya. She's too much like a sister. She doesn't need to ask to know something is wrong.

Grabbing your bag you turn to her. She already has her coat on and bag slung over her shoulder. She waits for you to walk out the door, and then she follows in suit. Once you have reached the quiet street, you take a breath of the brisk night air and tell Kanaya what she's been waiting for.

"My check bounced today."

She quiet for a moment before she asks, "How much?"

"Five hundred. For text books and shit."

"How much of your inheritance have you used?"

"Not a cent." you keep looking strait ahead as you hear her palm connect with her forehead. "I don't fucking care what you say, I'm not going to use it."

"Please, do me the favor of reminding me exactly how much money you are refusing to use."

"Seven hundred, eighty two thousand, five hundred ninety six dollars, and seventy two cents."

"You checked it today?"

"Fucking stared at it my whole brake." you let your head lull back as you keep walking and think of that number. One big number.

"Why are you torturing yourself like this? Do you understand how much seven hundred grand is? You wouldn't have had to take out any student loans if you would just use the money!" she hits up upside the head and you turn to look at her serious expression. "Carlson, you are now in debt with loans to pay. Do yourself a favor and use the money. He gave it to you for a reason, he believed in you. He would be so proud that you have made it so far."

You're back to looking strait forward again as you can't stand to look at her watering eyes. "I can make it through my own god damn life without the fucking financial support of others. Everyone else has done it, so can I. I'm going to do it right. I'm not going to be a fucking failure this time."

"You're not a failure if you become successful."

"And what if I don't become successful?"

"Carlson!" she grabs your arm and pulls you a stop. "Stop making your life difficult. Do what is best for you and try to be a little optimistic?"

"I'm not making things difficult, that's just the way they are," you shoot back and yank your arm away. "Oh," you say over your shoulder as you turn the corner where your paths split, "And I'm so fucking optimistic, you wouldn't believe it. You're the one telling me I can't make it on my own!"

She doesn't respond as you walk away. She knows she's right. She knows you know she right, but that doesn't mean you're going to listen.

You drag your self into your apartment, five flights of stairs up, and barely make it to the bed before you collapse, let alone take off your coat or shoes. You have homework to do and things to worry about, but for once you let yourself forget and close your eyes. You don't even turn on your alarm; you'll take a sick day to make a plan. One day of breath before you dive right back into the cold world. One day.

Where are you? There's noise, lots of noise. Your eye flutter open and you find yourself blinded by the bright lights. Slowly your eyes adjust and you observe your surroundings. More like you observe the chaos around you. Screams. Lots of screams. The golden buildings are burning and the air smells of blood.

Sitting up you realize you're dressed in golden pajamas. The next thing you realize is that you have no clue who you are. But you know who they are. Your friends. And her, she's someone important. She's dressed in similar golden pajamas. For some reason her pointed candy corn horns don't surprise you. They sit atop her curled black hair that whips back and forth as she turns her head looking for somebody. Or smelling for somebody, you correct yourself because suddenly you remember that she's blind. Her worried expression changes as her black lips part to form a wide smile as she notices you. She takes a starts to run towards you.

"Kar-!"

The second part of the word is stopped by the sword the plunges through her chest.

As her blood splatters, a foreign young voice cries out inside you and passes through your lips, "Terezi!"

Her body falls limp as her murder withdraws his sword. You feel your heart pounding in your chest as you tear you eyes away from her corpse to meet the eyes of the murder who is slowly walking towards you. He looks familiar, yet he's a stranger. He seems to have a body of a man, walking on two feet, but a head of a dog, and wings of a large bird. He wields a sword that is dripping in multiple colors. Some how you know it's all blood. The fresh teal is the most revolting as you sneak a quick glance at the girls' corpse.

Your vision is blurred with a red liquid that soon escapes your eyes and streams down your cheeks as you look back at the murder who is now just mere feet in front of you. Your eyes drift from him to his sword again. This time you see more than just blood. You see yourself. Your reflection. Again the question arises in your mind. Who am I? Why don't I remember?

Closing your eyes you listen to your pounding heart and heaving lungs work faster than they should in one second. Opening your eyes again in that same second you see your reflection again. This time though, you are staring into the red eyes of a mutant. He has grey skin and small, nubby, candy corn horns. Tears have streaked his face and he swears he will never let them sleep again. He just wanted to be a leader and a friend who they could trust. And now he's going to die.

Your name is Karkat Vantas and you remember every thing as the sword slices through your flesh.


	3. Prospit Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really short, sorry!

Your heart pounds in your ears as you shoot up in your bed. You’re breathing heavily and shaking. What just happened? You haven’t had nightmares in years. Did you just watch yourself die? No, you watched a girl die and then you were killed. Holy shit.

You run your trembling hands through your hair. Why are you shaken up about this? It’s just a dream. The images start to come back to you and you clench your hands I’m your hair and squeeze closed you eyes as if you could escape them.

They come at you full force. The memories of a child that isn’t you, but you feel his pain and fear as if he had lived inside you your whole life. He is apart of you, a memory long forgotten, a memory you weren’t meant to live with, a memory you don’t want to live with.

Your mind feels like it’s about to explode. What are you even thinking about? Is this another dream? Like fucking dreamception or something? Slowly you open your eyes and look around your room. It’s your room and nothing seems different. Glancing over at the clock you notice it is four thirty. So much for taking a day off. You decide to get up and reward yourself with a long shower.

The warm water pours over your shoulders and washes away the grogginess from your brain. After a few moments of letting the water pound against your back, you feel your muscles loosen and the stress from the dream lessens. Once you start thinking straight again you realize why those images scared you. It wasn’t the fact that it was a nightmare, it’s the fact that you knew what was going on. That dream wasn’t a figment of your mind; it was a figment of hers. God damn it. 

Her world. How did it get into your head? She told you about it, what four, five times? And not in that much detail either. Those people, with horns and grey skin, it was her. She died, right in front of you.

That thought makes your stomach sink and you rub your eyes wanting that forgiven felling to leave. This job is messing with your head. It was a dream; you should have forgotten it by now. Why does the image of her limp body keep flashing through your mind? Do you subconsciously want her to die or something?

You step out of the shower and decide just to go to work. Stop your mind for thinking maybe. Or maybe you just need to see her.

Coffee in hand, you get ready faster than you ever have and you’re out the door by five thirty. You’re a little early, but plenty of others have seemed to have started their rounds, so you decide to start without Kanaya. You’ll get shit for it later, but it’s not like she does much anyway.

You walk to the room you normally start at, but you’re trembling again. Fine, you’ll get this over with right away. You march right to Teresa’s room and try to get your body under control. She’s alive, you reassure yourself. It was just a dream, it doesn’t mean anything.

When at least your hand stops shaking you step into the room as normally as possible, but she notices instantly how early you are. She doesn’t say anything, just stares without seeing. How early does she wake up? Does she always look this tired?  
You find yourself at the side of her bed rather than doing your tasks. It takes a moment, but a smile soon spreads across her face.

“You had a dream didn’t you?”

When you don’t answer her smile doubles in size.

“It was about me wasn’t it?” She wiggles her eyebrows and laughs at her own joke. “Seriously, what did you see?!” She looks so hopeful; you almost don’t want to pop her bubble.

“You, me, a city.” It’s a struggle to keep the emotion out of your voice.

“And?” She presses, “What happened!”

You hesitate before answering and she takes the chance to reach out and grab your hand. You don’t pull away for once.

“We died.”

Her face drops. “We were wearing yellow right?”

“Yeah.”

She gives your hand a squeeze. “Of all the things you could have seen, you saw that. I’m sorry.”

“Fuck you.” Is all you manage to say as you rip your hand out of hers and go to get her pills.

“Do you believe me?”

“No.”

“Why?” She practically whines.

“It was a dream, no fuck that, a nightmare, which was created by listening to your god damn rants day in and day out about how wonderful your little world is. What ever I saw wasn’t your happy little world. It was probably foreshadowing what will happen to me if I keep listening to your bull shit.”

You slam the bottle down and hand her the pills. She flinches and takes them.

“It’s not always happy.”

“Oh, really? From what I collected it’s your little paradise where you don’t have to face the harsh reality of life.”

She shakes her head. “It can be a horrible place. If it was my paradise, don’t you think I would be able to see? I can’t see there either. My life is more real there than it is here. Here I’m not allowed to see the outside world and they don’t allow me to dream off to my real life where things actually happen.” Her voice starts to rise. “It’s not my fault I can see both worlds! Why does no one believe me?! They want me to forget about my other life, but they won’t let me live this one! Is it so wrong to want to live?!”

Tears start falling from her eyes. You go against everything you stand for and wrap and wrap your arms around her in a hug. Why are you mad at her? She’s right; it’s not really her fault.

“I don’t know why you want me to believe you.” You start as she clings to you. “I don’t think I’m Karkat. I mean, I saw everything from his point of view, but he’s so different. We are two different people. He’s much younger than me, what like thirteen was it? And he has accomplished so much. He really is a leader, he wants to protect his friends and he’s done a pretty good job so far. Losing you left him paralyzed. He didn’t know what to do. He’s the one you want, not me.” You pull away from her. “He loves you.”

She grabs you sleeve to hold you where you are. “Do you love me?”

There's a moment of hesitation before you reclaim your arm and turn away. “I’m not Karkat.”

With that you leave the room not wanting to continue this conversation. You’re glad you got that all cleared up. You can now function the rest of the day without her plaguing your mind, right?


End file.
